Welcome To Forks

2. Chapter 2

I had to go to school by bike; my mom didn’t seem to trust me enough to buy me a car. And really, have you ever ridden a bike while it’s raining? That’s awful. When I finally arrived at school, my jeans were wet at the level of my feet. I parked at the little lot made for bikes and motorcycles and had to cross the cars lot to go to the buildings, most of the cars were simple except a shiny Volvo and a red BMW that was more like a vision than the reality for me. I walked to my first class: Spanish, in building 1. Ha ha ha, where was building 1?? I called to a boy passing by me:

“Hey, excuse me, I’m new here. Do you know where building 1 is please?”

“It’s this one, in front of you.” He chuckled as he went away.

“Thanks… jerk.” I frowned and came in the building.

I found my classroom after several researches and came in, the teacher was already there and a blonde girl talked to me:

“Hey, you’re Buffy? I’m Jessica Stanley.”

I smiled at her. “Hey, yeah I’m Buffy.”

“You’re from California?” She had a huge smile on her face.

“L.A”

“L.A? Oh my God!”

“Yeah, that says it all.” She seemed nice to me, a brown-haired girl came by her side and looked shyly at me.

“You’re Chief Swan’s daughter. I met him yesterday when I was going for a walk, he greeted me nicely.”

She smiled tenderly and replied:

“Yeah, he’s very nice. Where do you live in Forks?”

“Just 2 streets from you.”

Her face lightened. “Oh great, you can visit whenever you want it.”

“Thank you, that’s nice.”

A tall, bronze-haired, very handsome guy came behind Bella and put his hand on her waist. Her boyfriend.

She turned her head back and smiled a big smile at him.

“Here’s Edward. Edward, here’s Buffy.”

“Hi.” His smile was so, so gorgeous. And as I looked at him carefully, I noticed he reminded me of a vampire. His skin was very white, his eyes were deep and he seemed different from the others. But it was daylight so of course, he couldn’t be one of them. Bella seemed to notice that I looked at him and I quickly turned my head away. Then she glanced at Edward who seemed troubled now, I saw him pulling her to him. They went to their table without a word but the girl kept looking at him, wondering what was wrong. Jessica chuckled at my expression.

“That’s normal, don’t worry. They’re like only one person. They like to be only the two of them.”

“Ah, happy couple. Lucky them!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” She laughed with me and then proposed me to sit next to her. I agreed cheerfully. Everyone was welcoming. I put my things on the table and glanced quickly at Bella and Edward, they were talking in a low voice.

Bella’s POV

“What’s wrong?” I tried to keep my voice as normal as possible but I didn’t like to see him like this.

“I heard her thoughts, and when she saw me, she thought I reminded her of a vampire.”

I gasped.

“But maybe, she was referring to movies.” I doubted to believe it but after all…

“Maybe.”

I took his hand and told him: “Well, check her thoughts. Discretely, of course.”

He chuckled: “You, be discrete.”

I frowned.

“You can’t stop glancing at her from the moment we began to talk about her, you can’t help it; that’s a human default.”

“If I had this default only …”

He stroked my cheek slowly, shaking his head in disbelief.

I smiled at him. He then began to concentrate, checking Buffy’s mind. I glanced a last time at her, she was babbling with Jessica and Eric, who was behind the two girls. I wondered if, behind this pretty face and these blue-green eyes, she really knew something about vampires.

Buffy’s POV

As I was talking to Jessica, I suddenly felt the way I feel when a vampire is looking at me. I stopped talking and tried to concentrate, looking at everyone to see who was doing this; it was no one in front of me, I glanced on my right, no one either. I finally looked behind me, my eyes to Bella and Edward’s table ; that was him, I was positive about it. He then looked up at me and turned his head away as he stiffened. Bella stiffened too, and was now glaring at me. Exactly what I didn’t need, I thought as I turned back to Jessica.

Edward’s POV

That girl truly believed in vampires but the ones I saw in her head didn’t look like vampires to me. And she couldn’t have invented them, the memories were too clear for that. Who was she? I couldn’t see anything else than the faces of vampires in her head. Nothing else. I sighed: my Bella wasn’t the only one who had a shell around her mind. She gave me a little peace of paper:

What is it ?

I took a pen and wrote:

She believes in vampires, she knows we exist but they’re different in her mind. Their faces are not normal : they are scary, not especially attractive and stupid. They can’t run the way we do. And I can’t see anything else.

I gave her the paper back, she read it, frowning at the last sentence.

What do you mean by “I can’t see anything else” ?

She also has a kind of shell protecting her mind, I can’t see what she has to do with those creatures. And the weirdest thing is that she seemed to know I was searching in her mind.

I watched Bella’s face as she read what I had just written.

She made a face and shook her head. Then she held up a finger, having an idea apparently. I smiled at her, I loved the way she was so human. I waited for her answer.

Do you want me to try to get some information ? You know, I could talk to her, be her friend so maybe she’ll talk to me.

I felt a huge smile on my face, she was so diabolically clever. I winked at her to show her I agreed. She winked back and smiled and then she took my hand in hers and put them on her leg.

Buffy’s POV

What the hell?? This guy felt to me like a vampire, but he doesn’t seem to be one. Maybe I was wrong after all… No, no, no. I knew there was something. He looked pale, his eyes had a weird color and I swear he knew I was glaring at him. And the girl? Bella, why is she with him? Maybe he found some trick to go out in the daylight and he waits for her to trust him enough so afterwards, he could kill her. I have to ask Jessica.

“How long have they been together? I mean, Bella and Edward.” Edward was an ancient name moreover…

“Approximately 6 months.” She frowned at my curiosity.

“6 months? They look great together.” I tried to show a simple curiosity instead of a weird one.

She smiled. “Don’t they, huh? I admit I’m a bit jealous but they really go well together.”

I nodded and smiled. I didn’t understand a damn thing about it. Could there be different sorts of vampires? Like there were different races of dogs? I looked at them a last time: they were holding hands under the table. Bella looked happy, and they were exchanging love glances from time to time. Maybe I was wrong… Maybe I wasn’t.

“Have you been to the office?” Jessica asked.

“The office? No, why?”

She laughed. “When you’re a new student, you have to go to the office first, so they give you a map of the school and your timetable plus a paper that all the teachers have to sign.”

“Oh crap, I didn’t know! I’ll go at the end of the day.”

After the end of the classes, I went to the office and then straight home. My mom was there, unpacking things for her gallery.

“Here’s the mail, Mom.”

She turned back to me, and took it.

“Oh yeah, I forgot it, thanks Buffy. How was your first day?”

“Pretty fine, got some buddies now, that’s cool. And the teachers are not bad.”

She shook her head. “The teachers are not bad? Buffy, that’s their job, they can’t be bad.”

I nodded doubtfully: had she forgotten her school years ? Some teachers suck, full stop.

I helped her unpacking things and got dinner ready. Afterwards, I went into my room, waiting for the sun to set so I could go patrolling. I decided to take a shower before leaving, it could only relax me ; but as I washed myself, I couldn’t help myself thinking about Edward and Bella. Especially Edward, I had to keep an eye on him. We never know.

The air was kind of cold outside so I had to put on a coat – something I never had to do in L.A - and began to go downtown first. Everything seemed calm, there wasn’t a single sound ; I passed by Bella’s house, she wasn’t sleeping yet : the lights were still on. I saw her approaching her bed, and she was talking to someone apparently. Then, she suddenly turned her head to the street and saw me. I waved at her, feeling a little embarrassed. She waved back, her face full of questions.

Downtown, there was absolutely nothing to hunt. I looked for the cemetery and found it near the woods – just like in an old scary movie – and as I entered, I was surprised to find a small place and then I realized how isolated we were here, in Forks. Yet, this town was the perfect place for vampires : lots of woods, the night came pretty fast and people were easy preys as, except for the bears, there wasn’t so much danger to worry about. I checked the whole place in about 5 minutes: most of the people died quite a long time ago, far too late for any vampires to “born”. I sighed and got out, closing the gate behind me; well, maybe the woods would hide some things to hunt, besides bears hopefully. I thought about what Chief Swan told me, to pay attention to the bears in the woods ; if he only knew the danger in L.A, it had absolutely nothing to do with some bears, they looked more like teddy-bears than dangerous predators to me. I looked up at the sky and told myself I couldn’t make it to the woods, it was way too dark so I decided to go home. Normally, my new watcher would come tomorrow, he’s the new librarian in Forks High School and I hoped he will be more friendly than the one I had in L.A ; he would certainly ask me about my patrols, what would I tell him ? “Sorry, there aren’t any vampires in Forks !” Well, maybe there are after all… I won’t talk about Edward and Bella immediately, I think I have to let time pass a little and see how things are going on. Maybe I was totally wrong after all, I hoped at least; tomorrow, I’ll try to be nice to Bella so maybe I could gain more information. As I passed by Bella’s house, I noticed she was asleep, there were no lights anymore in her room.

Bella’s POV

I finished brushing my teeth and went back to my room where Edward was waiting for me, like any other night since we’re together. As I came into my room, I saw him laid down on my bed, his hands crossed on his belly, turning his head when he saw me coming in.

“Was I too long ?” I asked, teasing.

He sighed. “You’re always too long for me.” I chuckled and leant to kiss him, then I looked at the street as I had seen something from the corner of my eye. Buffy was walking toward downtown, she waved at me hesitantly and I waved back at her, smiling a bit. Edward saw the curiosity on my face and asked :

“What is it ?”

I watched her until I couldn’t see her anymore and laid next to Edward.

“Well, I just saw Buffy. She seemed to go downtown… What is she doing at this hour ? It’s quite late.”

He stroked my hair and shrugged.

“Maybe going to see a friend or…” And then he laughed.

“Or what ?”

“Well, I don’t really know if it’s just a joke, but she may be going on patrol. To hunt vampires.”

“To hunt vampires ? But vampires can’t be killed by humans !”

He raised an eyebrow. “Who said she was human after all ?”

I knew him to well and asked : “What do you know ?”

“Well, there’s an old legend, at least as old as vampires, that claims that a girl would be born to become the Slayer near the age of 16. There’d be one Slayer for each generation, this girl would be very strong and very intuitive. It hasn’t been proved yet, I’ve never seen a Slayer, and Carlisle either ; and even if there was a Slayer actually, she would have to run very fast and she also would have to smell different from humans. Buffy just smells like anyone else… Except you of course.”

I smiled and added :

“Well, I’ll try to get more information and then, maybe we should spy on her finally. If she’s really the Slayer, I wouldn’t want her to hurt you or the others.”

He kissed my forehead and told me, his tone reassuring : “Don’t worry love, she won’t hurt any of us.”